Training cubs for the Celtic Tiger: the volume production of technical graduates in the Irish educational system

Abstract

This article examines the claim that the Irish educational system was one cause of Ireland's rapid economic growth in the 1990s. For decades Irish economic policy has assumed that economic growth depended on foreign direct investment (FDI). During the 1990s, Irish exports largely comprised high‐technology manufacturing products; foreign‐owned firms required a small but significant stream of qualified technical labour. The overall standard of Irish education is not impressive: it generates large numbers of educational failures and has no research tradition. Comparison with the systems of other ‘Tiger’ economies, such as South Korea and Taiwan, shows that it has concentrated on the low‐cost production of technical graduates, often in short‐cycle and sub‐degree level courses. It was this particular educational structure, and not the standard of the system as a whole, that facilitated rapid economic growth based on FDI in high‐tech industry.

Notes

Project ‘Unireg’, Universities in Regional Development, funded by the European Commission within the TSER programme, contract no. SOEI‐CT98‐1108.

Project ‘Flexcom’, Flexibility and Competitiveness: Labour Market Flexibility, Innovation and Organisational Performance, funded by the European Commission within the IHP programme, contract no. HPSE‐CT‐2001‐0093.

As Turner notes, in small countries (or regions) such as Ireland, the value composition of the internationally traded sector has more effect than in larger countries (Turner, 2001, p. 30).

Although there was some modest revival in Irish‐owned manufacturing industry in the 1990s, it is clear that most manufacturing is now foreign‐owned.